System and method for temporary application component deletion and reload on a wireless device

ABSTRACT

A system and method for managing the deleting and reloading of software application components on a wireless device, such as a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, pager, or other computer platform. The wireless device has one or more resident executable software applications wherein each application has one or more application components and application-associated data, such as software licenses and user-specific data. The wireless device selectively deletes one or more application components of the resident software applications without loss of the application-associated data to clear resources on the wireless device, and selectively prompts an application download server across a wireless network to transmit deleted application components needed to be reinstalled on the wireless device to execute the application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] I. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention generally relates to data networks andcomputer communications across the data networks. More particularly, theinvention relates to the installation and deletion of softwareapplications and their components on wireless devices in selectivecommunication with one or more application download servers across awireless data network.

[0003] II. Description of the Related Art

[0004] Wireless devices, such as cellular telephones, communicatepackets including voice and data over a wireless network. Cellulartelephones themselves are being manufactured with increased computingcapabilities and are becoming tantamount to personal computers andhand-held personal digital assistants (“PDAs”). These “smart” cellulartelephones have installed application programming interfaces (“APIs”)onto their local computer platform that allow software developers tocreate software applications (commonly referred to as “programs”) thatare fully executable on the cellular telephone. The API sits between thewireless device system software and the software application making thecellular telephone computing functionality available to the applicationwithout requiring the software developer to have the specific cellulartelephone system source code.

[0005] The software applications can come pre-loaded at the time thewireless telephone is manufactured, or the user may later request thatadditional programs be downloaded over cellular telecommunicationcarrier networks, where the downloaded applications are executable onthe wireless telephone. As a result, users of wireless telephones cancustomize their wireless telephones through the selective downloading ofapplications, such as games, printed media, stock updates, news, or anyother type of information or application that is available for downloadthrough the wireless network. In order to manage the cellular telephoneresources, the user of the wireless telephone purposefully deletesapplications and data from the wireless telephone platform to clearstorage space so that new applications can be loaded onto the clearedstorage.

[0006] In contrast to the larger computer platforms of personalcomputers and PDAs, wireless devices have limited resources, such asstorage and processing, to devote to non-essential applications.Typically, the telecommunication applications have priority of usage ofthe system resources, with other applications allocated resources asavailable. The wireless device thus only has a limited capacity forholding all files for applications, and the managing of resources isleft up to the discretion of user of the telephone to deleteapplications to make room for new applications desired downloaded to thewireless device. The wireless device will not otherwise download anapplication that it does not have the resources to hold and execute.

[0007] In seeking to free resources on the wireless device, the usernormally cannot remove certain components of a resident applicationwithout disabling the entire resident application. If the user sought todelete specific components, such action would controvert the intendedfreeing of resources as the disabled resident application cannot berestored without full reinstallation of the application. The uselessundeleted application components still needlessly take up storage spaceeven though the main application is unexecutable. This all-or-nothingdeletion requirement for the resident software applications on thewireless device greatly limits the number of applications that can beresident on the wireless device and available to the user.

[0008] Accordingly it would be advantageous to provide a wireless devicethat can remove certain components of applications while maintainingimportant data for the application, such as licenses and user-specificdata, to maximize the utilization of computer resources on the wirelessdevice. Upon the wireless device requiring the deleted softwarecomponents to again execute the application, the wireless device canobtain the software components through the wireless network. It is thusto the provision of such a system and method that can control thedeletion and reloading of select software application components at thewireless device that the present invention is primarily directed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] The present invention is a system and method for managing theloading and deletion of software application components on a wirelessdevice, such as a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, pager,or other computer platform. The wireless device has one or more residentexecutable software applications wherein each application includes oneor more application components and application-associated data, such assoftware licenses and user-specific data, and the wireless device is inselective communication with a wireless network. There is at least oneapplication download server on the wireless network that selectivelycommunicates with wireless devices and downloads software applicationsand application components to the wireless devices.

[0010] To manage system resources, and especially storage space, thewireless device selectively deletes one or more application componentsof the one or more resident software applications without loss of theapplication-associated data, and then selectively prompts theapplication download server across the wireless network for transmissionof one or more application components when the application is againdesired to be executed on the wireless device. Once the one or moreapplication components are received from the application downloadserver, the wireless device installs the one or more applicationcomponents for resident applications with components previously deletedsuch that the resident applications are again executable on the wirelessdevice.

[0011] The application-associated data is data that is typically notrecoverable should it be deleted. Examples of the application-associateddate can be data required to execute the software application, such as alicense, or could be user-specific data such as personal identificationdata, high scores for games, an address book, or the like, with orwithout the license. The application-associated data can also includeapplication components necessary to execute the application on thewireless device such as a specific driver or application-criticalmodule.

[0012] The method for managing the loading and removal of components ofone or more software applications resident on a wireless deviceaccordingly includes the steps of selectively deleting at the wirelessdevice one or more application components of the one or more residentsoftware applications without loss of the application-associated data,selectively establishing a communication link from the wireless deviceto an application download server wherein the wireless device promptsthe application download server for transmission of one or more deletedapplication components, and installs the transmitted one or moreapplication components such that the one or more resident applicationsincluding the installed application components are executable on thewireless device.

[0013] The step of establishing a communication link is preferablyestablishing a communication link through a cellular telecommunicationnetwork, especially if the wireless device is a cellular telephone orpager. The establishing of a communication link typically occurs uponthe wireless device intending to execute a resident software applicationfor which one or more associated components have been deleted, andwireless device can prompt the user to make a communication link to theapplication download server to retrieve a copy of the deleted component,if necessary.

[0014] The step of selectively deleting at the wireless device one ormore application components of the one or more resident softwareapplications preferably occurs at the direction of the user of thewireless device when the user desires to clear resources to download anew software application that will require the resources. However, thedeletion can occur as determined by the wireless device managing itsresources in accord with the actions of the user seeking to downloadapplications which requires the freeing of system resources.

[0015] The present invention also includes a wireless device itself thatcan function in the inventive system, and a program in a computerreadable medium that directs a wireless device having a computerplatform to perform the steps of the inventive method.

[0016] Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is toprovide a system and method that allow a wireless device to deletecertain components of its resident software applications whilemaintaining important data for the applications, such as licenses anduser-specific data, to maximize the utilization of computer resources,such as storage. The wireless device can still execute the softwareapplication for which components have been deleted by retrieving copiesof the deleted software components through the wireless network from theapplication download server. The invention thus provides an advantage tothe user of the wireless device through efficient usage of the wirelessdevice system resources such that the user can have ready access to alarger amount of executable software applications than can be completelystored on the wireless device. While the component deletion andreloading processes can be at the direction of the user, the processescan also be fully automated on the wireless device such that theprocesses are transparent to the user.

[0017] Other objects, advantages, and features of the present inventionwill become apparent after review of the hereinafter set forth BriefDescription of the Drawings, Detailed Description of the Invention, andthe claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018]FIG. 1 is a representative diagram of the present invention systemof managing the temporary deletion and reloading of software applicationcomponents on wireless devices in selective communication with one ormore application download servers over a wireless network.

[0019]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the hardware components of anexemplary wireless network providing communication between differentwireless devices and an application download server and database.

[0020]FIG. 3 is a file table resident on the wireless device platformspecifically illustrating an application with its constituentcomponents.

[0021]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the selective deletion ofapplication components on the wireless device.

[0022]FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the retrieval of the wirelessdevice of application components from the application download server torestore an application on the wireless device such that the applicationis again executable.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0023] With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown the present inventivesystem 10 for the deletion and reloading of software applicationcomponents on a wireless device, such as cellular telephone 12, incommunication across a wireless network 14 with at least one applicationdownload server 16 that selectively transmits software applications andcomponents to wireless devices across a wireless communication portal orother data access to the wireless network 14. As shown here, thewireless device can be a cellular telephone 12, a personal digitalassistant 18, a pager 20, which is shown here as a two-way text pager,or even a separate computer platform 22 that has a wirelesscommunication portal, and may otherwise have a wired connection 24 to anetwork or the Internet. The inventive system can thus be performed onany form of remote module including a wireless communication portal,including without limitation, wireless modems, PCMCIA cards, accessterminals, personal computers, access terminals, telephones without adisplay or keypad, or any combination or sub-combination thereof.

[0024] The application download server 16 is shown here on a network 26with other computer elements in communication with the wireless network14. There is a second server 30 and a stand-alone server 32, and eachserver can provide separate services and processes to the wirelessdevices 12,18,20,22 across the wireless network 14. There is preferablyalso at least one stored application database 28 that holds theapplications that are downloadable by the wireless devices 12,18,20,22.

[0025] In FIG. 2, a block diagram is shown that more fully illustratesthe components of the wireless network 14 and interrelation of theelements of the present invention. The wireless network 14 is merelyexemplary and can include any system whereby remote modules, such aswireless devices 12,18,20,22 communicate over-the-air between and amongeach other and/or between and among components of a wireless network 14,including, without limitation, wireless network carriers and/or servers.The application download server 16 and the stored application database28, along any other servers such as server 30 which are needed toprovide cellular telecommunication services, communicate with a carriernetwork 40, through a data link, such as the Internet, a secure LAN,WAN, or other network. The carrier network 40 controls messages (sent asdata packets) sent to a messaging service controller (“MSC”) 42. Thecarrier network 40 communicates with the MSC 42 by a network, theInternet and/or POTS (“plain ordinary telephone system”). Typically, thenetwork or Internet connection between the carrier network 40 and theMSC 42 transfers data, and the POTS transfers voice information. The MSC42 is connected to multiple base stations (“BTS”) 44. In a similarmanner to the carrier network, the MSC 42 is typically connected to theBTS 44 by both the network and/or Internet for data transfer and POTSfor voice information. The BTS 44 ultimately broadcasts messageswirelessly to the wireless devices, such as cellular telephone 12, byshort messaging service (“SMS”), or other over-the-air methods known inthe art.

[0026] The wireless device, such as cellular telephone 12, has acomputer platform 50 that can receive and execute software applicationstransmitted from the application download server 16. The computerplatform 50 includes an application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”52), or other processor, microprocessor, logic circuit, or other dataprocessing device. The ASIC 52 is installed at the time of manufactureof the wireless device and is not normally upgradeable. The ASIC 52 orother processor executes the application programming interface (“API”)layer that interfaces with any resident programs in the memory 56 of thewireless device. The memory can be comprised of read-only orrandom-access memory (RAM and ROM), EPROM, flash cards, or any memorycommon to computer platforms. The computer platform 50 also includes alocal database 58 that can hold applications not actively used in memory56. The local database 58 is typically a flash memory cell, but can beany secondary storage device as known in the art, such as magneticmedia, EPROM, optical media, tape, or soft or hard disk.

[0027] The wireless device, such as cellular telephone 12, accordinglydownloads one or more software applications, such as games, news, stockmonitors, and the like, and holds the application on the local database58 when not in use, and uploads stored resident applications on thelocal database 58 to memory 56 for execution on the API 54 when sodesired by the user. However, there are significant cost and sizeconstraints on the wireless device that limit the installed storagecapability available in the local database 58 and memory 56, so alimited amount of resident software applications can be held on thewireless device. The present inventive system and method manages thislimitation of storage capacity through the selective deletion andreloading of individual software application components, as is furtherdescribed herein.

[0028] With reference to FIG. 3, there is shown an illustrative filestructure, or data management structure, held in the API 54. Thetop-level domain is “Files” 60 that contains all of the discretesoftware files on the computer platform 50. The file structure of FIG. 3is merely illustrative and may not appear in this form on the computerplatform 50, and may even be present purely in machine code on thewireless device 12,18,20,22 with no discernable file structure. In theFiles 60 is the API, which here is shown as binary runtime environmentfor windows (“BREW”) 62, which is the API used by QUALCOMM® to interactwith software applications on the wireless device computer platform 50.The BREW 62 files include application files 64, and one file is game ofchess 66 that has been downloaded from the application download server16 and is now resident on the local database 58 of the computer platform50 of the wireless device. For purposes of illustration, the chess 66application is a resident software application of the wireless device.

[0029] The chess 66 application includes several software components 68,such as the files chess.mod and chess.bar. The application components 68are necessary modules to execute the chess application on the computerplatform 50. Chess 66 also includes specific application-associateddata, shown here as a scores.sig 70, which are the stored scores for theuser playing games of chess on the computer platform 50. There also canbe a license included as a hidden file in the chess 66 application.Thus, the application components 68 that allow execution of the game ofchess are easily duplicated with a copy transmitted from the applicationdownload server 16, while the associated-application data, such as thescores 70 and the license will be lost if their files or modules aredeleted. The present invention therefore utilizes the ability to obtainanother copy of the non-essential application components from theapplication download server 16 while maintaining the non-retrievableapplication-associated data, such as a license, or user specific data,such as personal information and addresses, or even purelyentertainment-related data such as the previous scores 70 for chessgames.

[0030] When the user desires to download another software application tothe computer platform 50 and there are insufficient resources,especially in terms of storage on the local database 58, the BREW API62, or other space-managing components, can trigger a prompt to the userto ask if the application components for chess can be removed so thatthe requested downloaded application can be placed on the computerplatform 50. Otherwise, the BREW API 62 can determine which componentsto delete and automatic manage the system resources. While the chess.modand chess.bar files are deleted from the chess 66 file, the chess gamewill not be executable on the computer platform 50. Through theseparation of essential and non-essential files on the computer platform50, the wireless device can selectively delete one or more of theapplication components 68 of the one or more resident softwareapplications without loss of the application-associated data, such asthe scores file 70.

[0031] When the application which has had one or more applicationcomponents deleted, such as the chess game 66 with the chess.mod and thechess.bar application components 68 deleted and the user desires toagain use that application, the wireless device will selectively promptsthe application download server 16 across the wireless network 14 fortransmission of one or more application components 68. Once the wirelessdevice receives the application components 68, the wireless deviceinstalls the transmitted one or more application components 68 back ontothe computer platform 50 such that the resident application, or herechess 66, is again executable. It should be noted that all of theapplication components 68 do not have to be removed, and can be deletedbased upon size of the application or other criteria. Further, the filescontaining application-associated data, such as scores.sig 70, can alsocontain application components required to execute the application andare not necessarily pure data-containers.

[0032]FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts illustrating the inventive method formanaging the loading and removal of application components 68 of one ormore software applications resident on the computer platform 50 of awireless device 12,18,20,22. As shown in FIG. 4, the computer platform50 receives the instruction to download a software application, shown atstep 80, and then a decision is made on the ASIC 52 or other processorof the wireless device as to whether there are sufficient resourcesavailable to download the application, as shown at decision 82. If thereare sufficient resources available, then the application is downloadedand stored, as shown at step 84, and the download process is terminated.If there are insufficient resources at decision 82, then the user isprompted to clear system resources in order to download the application,as shown at step 86, which entail the deleting of certain applicationcomponents. A decision is then made as to whether the user approves ofclearing resources, as shown at decision 88, and if not, the user isinformed of the insufficient resources available for the download, asshown at step 90, and the download process is terminated. If the userapproves of clearing resources at decision 88, then one or moreapplication components, such as components 68, are selectively deletedto clear the requisite resources, and such deletion occurs withoutsignificant loss of the application-associated data, such as thescores.sig file 70 or any license to use the application. Then theapplication is downloaded and stored on the computer platform 50, asshown at step 94, and the down load process is terminated.

[0033] The process to reinstall the deleted components is shown in FIG.5 when a request to execute the application with one or more deletedcomponents 68 is received, as shown at step 100. An example of thiswould be the user seeking to play the chess game once again. The user isthen preferably prompted to make a communication link to the applicationdownload server 16, as shown by step 102. However, the wireless deviceat receipt of the execution request can alternately automaticallyestablish the communication link. If a request to execute theapplication is requested of the user, then a decision is made as towhether the user has authorized the link, as shown at decision 104. Ifthe user declines establishing the link, the user is informed that theneeded application components must be downloaded in order to execute therequest application, as shown at step 106, and then the executionrequest is terminated. If the user authorizes the communication link atdecision 104, then a communication link is establish with theapplication download server 16, as shown at step 108.

[0034] Once the communication link is established with the applicationdownload server 16, the application download server 16 is prompted bythe wireless device to transmit one or more application components thatare needed by the wireless device to execute the requested application,as shown at step 110. It is then determined if the server transmittedrequisite application components, as shown at decision 112, and if not,the user is informed of the failure to obtain the requisite components,as shown at step 114, and the execution request is terminated.Otherwise, if the server has transmitted the requisite components atdecision 112, the wireless device receives the components form theapplication download server, as shown at step 116, and installs thereceived components into the application such that the application isexecutable, as shown at step 118. The application is then executed onthe wireless device until terminated, as shown at step 120.

[0035] If the reloading of the deleted application components, such asapplication components 68, were automatic, the process of FIG. 5 wouldgo right from the receipt of the request to execute the application atstep 100 to prompting the application download server 16 at step 110.The wireless device would only inform the user if the application failedto download the components, as shown at step 114.

[0036] The step of establishing a communication link is typicallyestablishing a communication link through a digital or analog cellulartelecommunication network as shown in FIG. 2, but other wirelessnetworks such as a wireless LAN, or a microwave or infrared network canalternately be used. Further, establishing a communication link canoccur automatically upon the wireless device 12,18,20,22 intending toexecute a resident software application for which one or more associatedcomponents have been deleted, i.e. the wireless device bridges acommunication through the wireless network 14 to the applicationdownload server 16. Otherwise, the step of establishing a communicationlink can occur upon the specific prompt of user of the wireless device12,18,20,22 to bridge a communication link the application downloadserver 16 to transmit over the wireless network 14 one or moreapplication components for a resident software application for which oneor more associated components have been deleted. If the user of thewireless device will be billed for the communication link, such as acellular phone call, in order to have the new application componentstransmitted to the wireless device, then the user should be promptedprior to deletion of the component(s) to authorize the communicationlink that will be necessarily to reload the components. The user canagain be prompted when the communication link is needed to retrieve thecomponents of the application to render the application executable.However, if the wireless device is fully automated and the communicationlink does not necessitate a charge to the user, then no prompt needs tobe made to the user, and the reloading of the component(s) istransparent, unless a problem is encountered and an error messagegenerated, such as at step 114.

[0037] In view of the inventive method, the present invention includes aprogram resident in a computer readable medium, where the programdirects a wireless device having a computer platform to perform theinventive steps of the method. The computer readable medium can be thememory 56 of the computer platform 50 of the cellular telephone 12, orother wireless device, or can be in a local database, such as localdatabase 58 of the cellular telephone 12. Further, the computer readablemedium can be in a secondary storage media that is loadable onto awireless device computer platform, such as a magnetic disk or tape,optical disk, hard disk, flash memory, or other storage media as isknown in the art. In the context of FIGS. 4 and 5, the present inventionmethods may be implemented, for example, by operating portion(s) of thewireless network 14 to execute a sequence of machine-readableinstructions. These instructions may reside in various types ofsignal-bearing media. This signal-bearing media may comprise, forexample, RAM (not shown) accessible by, or residing within, thecomponents of the wireless network 14. Whether contained in RAM, adiskette, or other secondary storage media, the instructions may bestored on a variety of machine-readable data storage media, such as DASDstorage (e.g., a conventional “hard drive” or a RAID array), magnetictape, electronic read-only memory (e.g., ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM), anoptical storage device (e.g. CD-ROM, WORM, DVD, digital optical tape),paper “punch” cards, or other suitable data storage media includingtransmission media such as digital and analog.

[0038] While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative embodiments ofthe invention, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the inventionas defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, although elements of theinvention may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural iscontemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for managing the loading and deletion ofsoftware application components on a wireless device in selectivecommunication with a wireless network, comprising: at least one wirelessdevice having one or more resident executable software applicationswherein each software application includes one or more applicationcomponents and application-associated data; at least one applicationdownload server on the wireless network, the application serverselectively communicating with the at least one wireless device anddownloading software applications and application components to the oneor more wireless devices across the wireless network; and wherein the atleast one wireless device selectively deletes one or more applicationcomponents of the one or more resident software applications withoutloss of the application-associated data, selectively prompts theapplication server across the wireless network for transmission of oneor more application components, and installs the transmitted one or moreapplication components such that the one or more resident applicationsincluding the installed application components are executable on thewireless device.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theapplication-associated data includes a license for use of the softwareapplication.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein theapplication-associated data includes user-specific data.
 4. The systemof claim 1, wherein the application-associated data includes applicationcomponents necessary to execute the application on the wireless device.5. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is a cellulartelephone.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is apersonal digital assistant.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein thewireless device is a pager.
 8. A system for managing the loading anddeletion of software application components on a wireless communicationmeans, comprising: wireless communication means for selectivelycommunicating over a wireless network, the wireless communication meanshaving one or more resident executable software applications whereineach software application includes one or more application componentsand application-associated data; application download means forselectively downloading software applications and application componentsto the wireless communication means across the wireless network; andwherein the wireless communication means selectively deletes one or moreapplication components of the one or more resident software applicationswithout loss of the application-associated data, selectively prompts theapplication download means across the wireless network for transmissionof one or more application components, and installs the transmitted oneor more application components such that the one or more residentapplications including the installed components are executable on thewireless communication means.
 9. A method for managing the loading anddeletion of components of one or more software applications resident ona wireless device, each software application including one or moreapplication components and application-associated data, and the wirelessdevice in selective communication with one or more application downloadservers over a wireless network, the method comprising the steps of:selectively deleting at the wireless device one or more applicationcomponents of the one or more resident software applications withoutloss of the application-associated data; selectively establishing acommunication link from the wireless device to an application downloadserver wherein wireless device prompts the application download serverfor transmission of one or more deleted application components;transmitting the one or more deleted application components from theapplication download server to the wireless device; and installing atthe wireless device the transmitted one or more application componentssuch that the one or more resident applications including the installedapplication components are executable on the wireless device
 10. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the step of establishing a communication linkis establishing a communication link through a cellulartelecommunication network.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the stepof establishing a communication link occurs upon the wireless deviceintending to execute a resident software application for which one ormore associated components have been deleted.
 12. The method of claim 9,wherein the step of selectively deleting at the wireless device one ormore application components of the one or more resident softwareapplications is selectively deleting the one or more applicationcomponents of the one or more resident software applications at thedirection of the user of the wireless device.
 13. The method of claim12, wherein the step of establishing a communication link occurs upon auser of the wireless device prompting the application download server totransmit over the wireless network one or more application componentsfor a resident software application for which one or more associatedcomponents have been deleted.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein thestep of selectively deleting at the wireless device one or moreapplication components of the one or more resident software applicationsis selectively deleting the one or more application components of theone or more resident software application is determined by the wirelessdevice.
 15. A method for managing the loading and deletion of componentsof one or more software applications resident on a wireless device,software application including one or more application components andapplication-associated data, and the wireless device in selectivecommunication with one or more application download servers over awireless network, the method comprising the steps of: a deletion stepfor selectively deleting at the wireless device one or more applicationcomponents of the one or more resident software applications withoutloss of the application-associated data; a communication step forselectively establishing a communication link from the wireless deviceto an application download server wherein wireless device prompts theapplication download server for transmission of one or more deletedapplication components; a transmission step for transmitting the one ormore deleted application components from the application download serverto the wireless device; and an installation step for installing at thewireless device the transmitted one or more application components suchthat the one or more resident applications including the installedapplication components are executable on the wireless device
 16. Awireless device having one or more resident software applicationswherein each application includes one or more application components andapplication-associated data, the wireless device in selectivecommunication over a wireless network with at least one applicationserver that selectively downloads software applications and applicationcomponents to the wireless device, the wireless device furtherselectively deleting one or more application components of the one ormore resident software applications without loss of theapplication-associated data, selectively prompting the applicationdownload server across the wireless network for transmission of one ormore deleted application components, and installing the transmitted oneor more application components such that the one or more residentapplications including the installed components are executable on thewireless device.
 17. The wireless device of claim 16, wherein thewireless device is a cellular telephone.
 18. The wireless device ofclaim 16, wherein the wireless device is a personal digital assistant.19. The wireless device of claim 16, wherein the wireless device is apager.
 20. In a computer readable medium, a program that directs awireless device having a computer platform and one or more residentsoftware applications wherein each software application includes one ormore application components and application-associated data, to performthe steps of: selectively deleting one or more application components ofone or more software applications resident on the wireless device, thedeletion occurring without loss of the application-associated data;selectively establishing a communication link over a wireless network toan application download server wherein the wireless device prompts theapplication download server for transmission of one or more applicationcomponents that were deleted from a resident application; and installingat the wireless device the transmitted one or more applicationcomponents such that the one or more resident applications including theinstalled application components are executable on the wireless device.